In Chris Petersen's six years at Washington, he had only one great offense (2016 Playoff year), which was the lone year that Jeff Tedford was on staff as an offensive analyst. Do you think there is a connection? I'm starting to think Petersen has lost his creativity on that side of the ball.Lee M.How good can the Cal Bears be this year? Their defense looked lights out on Saturday night.Matt W.It's the eternal question: Was Cal's defense that good or Washington's offense that bad the other night? (Also, did playing at 1 in the morning maybe possibly have an effect?)Let me start with the second part first. I immersed myself in all-things Cal this spring in reporting the Bears' State of the Program piece. So it was pretty cool to tune in Saturday night and see much of what Justin Wilcox prophesized at the time come to fruition. We knew Cal's defense, and its secondary in particular, would be exceptional, but the Bears desperately needed some offensive playmakers to emerge. And they did. The guy he talked up the most, sophomore RB Chris Brown, has rushed for 277 yards his first two games. Former junior college transfer Marcel Dancy is averaging 8.7 yards per carry. And Michigan transfer Kekoa Crawford, who hadn't even arrived yet when I was there, made a huge catch on the Bears' winning drive the other night.Mind you, QB Chase Garbers did not do much up until that last drive. He'll need to be more productive going forward. If he does, Cal could have a really good season.As for Washington it's hard to overlook the numbers at this point and raise that very question about Petersen. It's just strange to me, because he was one of, if not THE most innovative offensive coaches in the country while at Boise State. In his defense, it's a lot easier to throw things against the wall when you play most of your games in the WAC with nobody watching and aren't necessarily expected to win the other ones. He presumably feels more pressure mot to screw up at Washington.But more importantly you're only as good offensively as your quarterback. Jake Browning won a lot of games, but outside of that one magical season as a sophomore, often showed why perhaps Petersen couldn't entirely trust him. And I know everyone's got a lot riding on Jacob Eason, but he did not look like an all-everything passer Saturday night. I wouldn't go ruling out either him or Petersen, though, based off one very strange, very close loss. It may really be that Evan Weaver, Ashtyn Davis and the rest of that Cal's defense is just that good.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

As for Washington it's hard to overlook the numbers at this point and raise that very question about Petersen. It's just strange to me, because he was one of, if not THE most innovative offensive coaches in the country while at Boise State. In his defense, it's a lot easier to throw things against the wall when you play most of your games in the WAC with nobody watching and aren't necessarily expected to win the other ones. He presumably feels more pressure mot to screw up at Washington.

I think this is a big issue with teams like Boise. Do you think every P-5 coach in America couldn't just get film on them and copy that offense? If they could do that game in and game out in a P-5 conference, they would. It is a lot easier to win with "crazy" schemes when you toil in a lesser conference all year and come out once or twice to play a big team that never sees anything like it. The more prevalent the offense becomes, the more beatable it becomes. Chip Kelly is seeing what happens when people catch up to your gimmick offense.

Petersen's a good coach and as much as people are criticizing UW for not getting over the hump, they are consistently better than anything they have done in the 20 years prior to Petersen. I just don't think you could expect him to run his offense the same way he did in Boise and have the same success. Maybe adjusting to a P-5 schedule by realizing he had to be a little more traditional has enabled him to avoid the crash and burn results of previous Boise coaches who have made the move up.

As for Washington it's hard to overlook the numbers at this point and raise that very question about Petersen. It's just strange to me, because he was one of, if not THE most innovative offensive coaches in the country while at Boise State. In his defense, it's a lot easier to throw things against the wall when you play most of your games in the WAC with nobody watching and aren't necessarily expected to win the other ones. He presumably feels more pressure mot to screw up at Washington.

I think this is a big issue with teams like Boise. Do you think every P-5 coach in America couldn't just get film on them and copy that offense? If they could do that game in and game out in a P-5 conference, they would. It is a lot easier to win with "crazy" schemes when you toil in a lesser conference all year and come out once or twice to play a big team that never sees anything like it. The more prevalent the offense becomes, the more beatable it becomes. Chip Kelly is seeing what happens when people catch up to your gimmick offense.

Petersen's a good coach and as much as people are criticizing UW for not getting over the hump, they are consistently better than anything they have done in the 20 years prior to Petersen. I just don't think you could expect him to run his offense the same way he did in Boise and have the same success. Maybe adjusting to a P-5 schedule by realizing he had to be a little more traditional has enabled him to avoid the crash and burn results of previous Boise coaches who have made the move up.

Serious question about Petersen's (gimmick) Offense: What is it? All I remember from his years at Boise was they had that one trick play that won them a huge game and they had a QB for a few years who was super accurate. I haven't really noticed what his offense is at UW and, just from watching them play, they have seemed more like a defensive team than an offensive one.

Is Petersen considered more of an offensive coach, or a defensive coach (or both) and what is "his" offense?

Peterson lost Vita Vea and Budda Baker on defense; he lost Browning, Gaskin, Greg Gaines, John Ross and other receivers whose names I can't recall. He lost a haul of top flight talent. For the most part, it went to the NFL. His isn't a case of reloading, it is recruiting just like everyone else in the Pac12. At the same time, he came up against one of the best defenses, from top to bottom, that he will encounter the whole season. The Huskies are still a good team, we're just better.

Cal is emerging and is a threat to every team in the Pac12. We lost a couple of games last year due to experiments attempted by Baldwin. Our record, 7-5, is deceptive, because we were actually better than that and everyone on this Board knows it. The season is young, but we have already lost Craig, we saw Davis down at the end of the game, and who knows who else is dinged up on the team. Our greatest enemy is not opponents, but injury. If we can get through the season with a reasonable degree of health, I believe 8-4 or 9-3 are possible records.

Peterson lost Vita Vea and Budda Baker on defense; he lost Browning, Gaskin, Greg Gaines, John Ross and other receivers whose names I can't recall. He lost a haul of top flight talent. For the most part, it went to the NFL. His isn't a case of reloading, it is recruiting just like everyone else in the Pac12. At the same time, he came up against one of the best defenses, from top to bottom, that he will encounter the whole season. The Huskies are still a good team, we're just better.

Cal is emerging and is a threat to every team in the Pac12. We lost a couple of games last year due to experiments attempted by Baldwin. Our record, 7-5, is deceptive, because we were actually better than that and everyone on this Board knows it. The season is young, but we have already lost Craig, we saw Davis down at the end of the game, and who knows who else is dinged up on the team. Our greatest enemy is not opponents, but injury. If we can get through the season with a reasonable degree of health, I believe 8-4 or 9-3 are possible records.

Feel the same. Winning conference record basically, finally! The bye is after the Ducks game, which will hopefully be a monumental one. A chance to heal-up for a couple weeks, get some guys back, and get ready for the back half of the schedule...

Just like what Petersen said before the game, I don't think people understand how good our D is yet.

Sadly, if we can't get some O production to secure those Ws I don't think most of the nation will care. I hope beating UW at home and that last offensive series is a harbinger of things to come.

With three of the four drives in the 2nd half resulting in Cal scores, hopefully that is a harbinger of things to come. Against the UW D, encouraging...

The offense starting well is what we need to see. We have not in both of the games so far.

The running game has been impressive at 4.87 yards a carry. We are in top 1/3 in FBS with such production. Higher than normal for us as I recall, after a couple of games. Considering half those games are against the UW D, there is reason for encouragement. Having a sound to good running game will obviously help-out with the passing attack. Like what I'm seeing, and hope that continues this Sat...

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

If only the most influential person in college football media on the most influential network cared about Cal.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

KNBR stinks. So does 95.7 The Game, as they rarely mention the post-season bound A's and go on and on about the below .500 Giants.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

I agree. I mentioned as much in some other post where the morning crew figured out there were 22 QBs that they would start before Goff. They also don't cover the A's (with a huge local connection)but spend time on a horrible crap Giants team.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

KNBR stinks. So does 95.7 The Game, as they rarely mention the post-season bound A's and go on and on about the below .500 Giants.

Could the same thing be said about Baldwin? Adjusting to different level of competition?

yes, and it doesn't help when you go from having among the best personnel in your conference to having among the worst.

But How much of that was self inflicted?

The discussion is about schemes and trying to use schemes from a lower level when you are promoted to a higher level. So it isn't really relevant to the question who caused the personnel deficiencies. What is relevant is that there is a difference in schemes you can run when your personnel is better than your opponents and those you can run when their personnel is better than yours.

But if that is the question you want to ask, I'll answer. From the standpoint of personnel, close to zero. They were left with an OL that had to be rebuilt, a subpar group of runningbacks who needed a walk on to step up, a subpar QB and really the only self inflicted wound I'll agree on is that he was what he was his first year, he was hurt his second, and any inflicted wound is being felt now, and while I do think he is better, I don't think he would have made a huge difference in either game this season (might have not fit in as well with what we were doing as he is IMO a much better passer at this point, but not nearly the runner. We did lose out on flips though). And then they lost a couple receivers who I'll put it as gently as I can "had issues" and have done little elsewhere and unless you want to call addition by subtraction a self inflicted wound, I don't think that counts.

The personnel issues on offense, especially at every position other than WR were obvious and they were easy to see coming 2 years in advance.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

KNBR stinks. So does 95.7 The Game, as they rarely mention the post-season bound A's and go on and on about the below .500 Giants.

I somewhat understand why the radio stations will lean more towards giants than A's. Giants simply have more fans.

But why knbr keeps talking about furd and not cal makes no sense. I get that furd has been the much better team recently. But cal has way more fans.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

KNBR stinks. So does 95.7 The Game, as they rarely mention the post-season bound A's and go on and on about the below .500 Giants.

I'm an A's fan and on the one hand the Giants vs. A's talk on 95.7 bothers me. On the other hand, until this year they talked about the A's a lot and then the A's burned that bridge hard. And I'm someone who, other than the fact that the ownership won't spend money, admires the A's organization and what they have consistently been able to do top to bottom even with some of the cheapest owners in sports.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

Given that kind of omission on KNBR I am happy to say that I haven't listened to the station or Tolbert for years now...

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

As a college sports fan, I hate listening to local sports radio.

When I got my new car last year, it came with a 3 month free trial of Sirius XM. I got hooked on listening to College Football sports talk on their ESPNU channel. Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers have a morning show. There's also a dedicated Pac-12 channel.

I found myself signing up for a 6 month promo 3 weeks ago when football season started. The Pac-12 morning show has Ryan Leaf and Guy Haberman. Mike Yam is on sometimes too. Definitely gave Cal a lot of love this week.

I actually listened to the entire Murph & Mac show on Monday morning. I knew it would be a masochistic act, but I wanted to see if they would even mention the game. It was certainly newsworthy, given the lightning storm delay that was closing in on a cancellation that could have far-reaching implications for the conference. That plus the fact that a local team beat the 14th-ranked team in the country on the road in dramatic fashion with a gutty two minute drive after falling behind moments earlier to a career long field goal by the Husky kicker would have merited attention even on an NFL opening weekend heavy agenda. But no, NOT A SINGLE ACKNOWLEDGMENT! You can be damn sure Murphy would have been crowing about it if his abysmal Bruins had pulled off the upset! I shamed him on Twitter, but that's not much consolation.

For what it's worth, Papa and Lund did acknowledge the win and so did Tolbert at some point. *****M&M!Rant over.

The comment about Tedford being on staff their good year was the exact same thing I said last year. I am not Lee M though.

Tedford was on staff until around Nov. 12, when he left to take the Fresno State job. That was the week before UW played USC, and UW OC Jonathan Smith, now without his zombie puppet-master, corched the Huskieie offense to 13 measly points in a 24-13 loss. Say what you like about the Hardcore Husky people, but they give Tedford a huge amount of credit for Washington's offensive success that year, and they were absolutely beside themselves when he left.

(Jonathan Smith failed upwards to the HC job in Corvallis, where he's accomplishing a full 360-degree turnaround of a formerly crappy team)

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Wilner's giving us plenty of love. Has us ranked #18 in his top 25 teams nationally.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

As a college sports fan, I hate listening to local sports radio.

When I got my new car last year, it came with a 3 month free trial of Sirius XM. I got hooked on listening to College Football sports talk on their ESPNU channel. Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers have a morning show. There's also a dedicated Pac-12 channel.

I found myself signing up for a 6 month promo 3 weeks ago when football season started. The Pac-12 morning show has Ryan Leaf and Guy Haberman. Mike Yam is on sometimes too. Definitely gave Cal a lot of love this week.

Highly recommend.

There are 5 cal football podcasts that I listen to (yes I'm as surprised as you that there are actually 5 cal football podcasts - I believe 2 are new this year)

One of the new ones has Geoff mcarthur as one of the hosts. I actually think he has a ton of room for improvement as a "podcaster". He speaks in way too general terms rather than focusing on X's and O's or strategy. He sounds much more like a cal fan than a coach and former player.

My favorite podcast I won't mention cause it's on a opposing site. I'm a little disappointed that BI doesn't have it's own podcast. I think that would be great additional value/content for premium subscribers.

There are also a couple Pac-12 podcasts that aren't too bad. Yogi Roth does a decent one. And Pac-12 radio is pretty good if you like sports wagering.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

That's doubly surprising since Huard was the Washington QB from 1996 to 1998.

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

That's doubly surprising since Huard was the Washington QB from 1996 to 1998.

He could only answer the questions he was presented with.

It was clear that none of the three knbr hosts saw the game so I don't think they were prepared to talk about it. I'm actually a little surprised Tolbert didn't see the game on dvr, he's usually good about watching all the games (for the only reason he's a gambling addict)

Thanks for posting. I spend a lot of the time scouring the internet looking for Cal love. Feel like we didn't get as much as I would have hoped or expected given the upset, so I'll take what I can get.

Knbr had Brock huard on the Tolbert show on Tuesday. The interview lasted 15 mins. They talked about pretty much every college game imaginable. Except cal.

That's right. The local radio station didn't even mention the local team beating a ranked team on the road. But spoke at length about the Colorado/neb game

As a college sports fan, I hate listening to local sports radio.

When I got my new car last year, it came with a 3 month free trial of Sirius XM. I got hooked on listening to College Football sports talk on their ESPNU channel. Rick Neuheisel and Chris Childers have a morning show. There's also a dedicated Pac-12 channel.

I found myself signing up for a 6 month promo 3 weeks ago when football season started. The Pac-12 morning show has Ryan Leaf and Guy Haberman. Mike Yam is on sometimes too. Definitely gave Cal a lot of love this week.